Charlie Cult
The last time you clicked on a minecraft video was probably like 5 years ago. Don’t worry, i’m in that camp too. I’d rather watch paint dry than watch another hunger games lets play. My name is Schlatt, and today we’re gonna talk a bit about how a stupidly simplistic sandbox beca me my favorite game. Where I think it took a turn in the wrong direction, and why even after all the new changes, even after how god-awful the community’s become, and even after...mine...coins? There’s still a soft spot for it in my heart. Minecraft came out for the Xbox 360 on May 9th, 2012. Coincidentally, that was the day that 12 year old Schlatt found his new favorite game. Remember Bionicles? Yeah I had more than you did, so naturally a game where you could build whatever you wanted was right up my alley. And the 360 release of minecraft was a barebones version of an already barebones game. It was charmingly simple, dropping you into a world with no real instructions or goals. There wasn’t much to do. But things you could do, the game nailed. Combat was straightforward and fun, especially with a group of friends. Building stuff was almost therapeutic, and the quiet times spent mining in preparation for what was to come. That space to organize your thoughts and plan out your next move, all the while being serenaded by those faint piano melodies in the background. That was the icing on the cake. I was in love with this game. It let me be creative, adventurous. You could do with everything around you what you pleased. And to this day some of my fondest gaming memories have come from open world games like that. Day., GTA4, Sakura Beach… W-wait Every day i’d hop off the bus, throw myself on the couch and log back in. There was only one world I played on. I wanted to be the only of my friends that played on two, so I crammed as much cool shit on there as I could. I built minecarts, Mob traps, I exploited this duplication glitch and built a diamond house out of diamond blocks. Listen. I was a perfectionist. And this world had to be perfect. Or else all I would have been doing was wasting away in front of a TV every day. But even after the countless hours I pumped into minecraft, I was still pretty ass at building. So I started watching other people play to figure out what I could do or build to make my world a little better. And as a result, I found an entire new avenue of the game. I was never a huge fan of lets plays. My introduction to the genre was...well…loud. Even back then was a screaming contest. And even though I was twelve, that kind of stuff just didn’t sit well with me. I felt myself gravitating towards more reserved and laid back youtubers like Monkeyfarm, who in the let’s play space was a breath of fresh air. He took a very methodical approach to building, and his videos were more about that process rather than about him. And as I watched more videos, I eventually found my way into modded Minecraft through these two guys, Sips_ and Shin_. They were the quieter side of the Yogscast, and even though they both sucked at the game, it was hilariously fun to watch them dick around and trying to figure things out. These boys were the perfect lets play combo, and their SipsCo series where they automate the process of dirt collection is single handedly responsible for my foray into Tekkit. Tekkit was a different beast altogether. A collection of technology-oriented mods that looked like minecraft, but offered an entirely new way to play the game. If you didn’t like mining, you didn’t have to do it. You could build one of these things and it’d dig for you. If you didn’t like building, well guess what. Anything you wanted to do could be done with the right machines, and it led to some pretty incredible stuff. Tekkit’s charm wore off quickly, though. After the sipsco series ended, I found myself getting bored with mods, and gradually, I made my way back to Vanilla. But the charm was gone here, too. I tried to put my feelings into words on the Minecraft forum, and I left an extremely controversial post. I feel like minecraft is becoming too complicated. I liked it the old way better. Now there’s weighted pressure plates and these sun things. I still don’t know how to use anything from that redstone update. Why is everything becoming more complex? I thought minecraft was popular for it’s sipmlicity (or at least that’s why I liked it). I think I summed it up pretty well. I had stopped playing with mods because I preferred that simplicity - and with each new update and each round if new items and gameplay mechanics added to the base game, I felt like minecraft wasn’t minecraft anymore. So that begs the question… what is Minecraft? For me, minecraft is not knowing how to play Minecraft. It’s generating that first world and thinking to yourself “what next?”. It’s standing at the the foot of a massive ravine. Minecraft is that dirt hut you built on the first night. The memories I cherish the most from this game are from when I had no idea what I was doing. They’re from when the game was simple, and when my life was simple, too. Because back then, there was nothing to worry about. School was a joke, I didn’t have to study to do well. I didn’t have any commitments… pretty much all of my free time was spent playing video games. And it was enjoyable. I didn’t have a future to worry about. I was only just beginning to realize I liked making videos, and that was only because of an uncle in the field who continued to encourage me. Looking back, I suppose the simplicity of my seventh grade life coincided pretty well with the simplicity of Minecraft. And as I got older, and I gradually figured myself out, what I enjoyed doing, what my hobbies were, what I wanted to do later in life, Minecraft got older, too. At the end of the day, I didn’t know if it was my maturation or Minecraft’s maturation that started pushing me away, but ever since 2013, the game just hasn’t felt the same. Until in a moment of reflection, and tranquility, that soft piano music starts fading in. And the warm melodies I’ve come to know all too well over the years invite me back into a world I’ve missed for so long. C418’s Minecraft: Volume Alpha. I know nothing about music theory, and i’m not gonna pretend like I do, but there’s something about it. Maybe it’s the simple piano of Dry Hands, maybe it’s the quirkiness of subwoofer lullaby, or maybe it’s not actually the music at all. Because when I heard these songs the first time, they didn’t blow me away. I didn’t instantly fall in love with the soundtrack. But the soundtrack is the only thing that hasn’t changed since I loaded up the game for the first time. To me, these songs are timeless. And when they start playing, just for a moment, I feel like I’m twelve again, playing on that same world I always used to. The music is what brings back all those memories. It brings back Minecraft. Today, the Xbox 360 sits quietly on my dresser. To it’s right, a hacked Wii with the Homebrew channel on it. Before I got into Minecraft, I used to spam infinite items in Mario Kart and just make the race a living hell for anyone in it. And yes, that is actually me playing the game, recording the analog TV with a camera on a tripod. I know, it was bad. But I had to start somewhere, and that was it. To its left, a macbook pro that weighs more than I do. A parting gift from my uncle, who lost his fight to cancer in 2013. He was the one who got me into making videos in the first place, and god knows where I’d be without him. They’re all dusty, but they’re all still plugged in, hooked up to a TV that hasn’t been on for a while. And that world is still there, too. So I decided to go back in. For the first time in half a decade, I turned on the Xbox. I spawned in my wooden house, the first thing I ever built in minecraft. I made my way past the dozen or so dogs I had bred, and I went outside, and saw the first ever mob trap I had ever tried building. I don’t think I ever got that one working. Next door, the house of a friend I hadn’t spoken to since middle school. Above it, a “floating island” that I spent days trying to make. A little up the hill, the second attempt at a mob trap, which I think I got working at some point, and the entrance to a minecart rail that went on for miles. Underground, into caves, over the water, it was insane. The magnum opus of the entire world. And slowly but surely, Sweden faded in. And I just started crying. They weren’t sad tears, they weren’t tears of joy, I wasn’t overwhelmed, I...I don’t know. I knew that all this world is, all this game is, is just a cleverly constructed sequence of 1’s and 0’s, but I knew that in a way it’s a part of me. This world is something that I will always hold dear to my heart. It’s a window into the past, a reflection of the kid I was. It’s been waiting here, unchanged since 2013, when I logged of the 360 for the last time. Unchanged since I started to become the man I am today. Minecraft, the game, is changing. The only thing that’s really stayed static about it, has been the music. You can put me in some random world I’ve never explored. You can add weird new items i’ll never learn how to use. But to me, it’s not minecraft until that music starts fading in, and I’m pulled back into a world where nothing really mattered, where everything was easy, and when, well, I was happy. also one of the members is a FURRY! thats right and a KINNIE! good for them, good for them. better than k- *I am instantly killed by Jebediah Schlatt. He didn't even offer me an apple. Motherfucker*